MAJOR LEAGUE: BACK TO THE MINORS
The plot of this no-hitter centers around Gus Cantrell (Scott Bakula),
a washed-up pitcher who is asked to coach a minor league farm team owned
by his old acquaintance, Roger Dorn (Bernsen). In the same story that we
have seen in every baseball comedy since The Bad News Bears, Gus
takes this non-descript Triple-A team called the Buzz, and transforms them
from a bunch of bungling subhumans into a winning machine, eventually challenging
the Minnesota Twins, the big-league team also owned by Dorn and coached
by arrogant S.O.B. Leonard Huff (Ted McGinley).
This movie, written and directed by John Warren, suffers from a split
personality. It doesn't seem to know whether it's a comedy or a serious
sports story. Though all the players on the Buzz are strange for one reason
or another, and they all engage in their own brands of ridiculous behavior,
the coach (Gus) is written and played totally straight, as is his relationship
with them. Not that they're funny, but they're supposed to be. The
mutual animosity between the two coaches becomes quite bitter and nasty,
and the tension we're supposed to feel during the final game, which was
so well cultivated in the first two movies, is simply not present.
The only thing that makes this movie even slightly bearable as a comedy
is Uecker, who is back in the booth doing his commentary alongside various
stunned partners. He was one of the funny things in the other two films,
and he's the only funny thing here. Not that his presence makes any
sense. In the first two films, which were about the Cleveland Indians, he
played their regular announcer. The Indians are never even mentioned
here, but there he is in the booth, announcing for the Buzz. Was he
busted down to the minors?
After I realized that this film has little to do with ML and MLII,
I tried to judge it solely on its own merits. But as a free-standing work
of cinema, it doesn't have the star power or the screenwriting to distinguish
itself. Bakula's acting is adequate, but the story is largely misguided
and uneventful. It's simply boring.
Major League: Back To The Minors lacks the humor and energy of its two namesakes, and it lacks the heart of, say, Bull Durham or A League Of Their Own. Warren, Bernsen, and the producers are just attempting to follow the money. Anyone paying to see this film because they liked the first two Major League movies is in for a big disappointment. Come to think of it, maybe there is a better title for this movie: Major Greed. *½